These days everyone is tied to a smart phone, tablet or computer. With these tools at our fingertips it only makes sense to put them to work. Here are five fun apps that can help swine producers and showmen keep better records, learn about the cuts of meat and even check withdrawal times for a drug they used on their market hogs.  

• GESDATE Swine – This app was designed to help showpig people manage their sowherd straight from their phones, tablets or desktops. This powerful tool allows breeders to make intelligent, informed decisions regarding their showpig operation by providing them with powerful data at the touch of a button. GESDATE helps manage your herd and track your sows, breedings, sales, etc. Margins are tight, so the more you know, the more you will likely have to show.

• 4-H Livestock Record – Have you ever found yourself struggling to fill out your 4-H records at the last minute, or perhaps convincing your children to? Have no fear, technology is here to save the day! This free app, designed by the Learning Game Labs at NM State University, allows you to organize your market livestock project information on your iPhone or iPad and send customized reports right to your email inbox. According to its website, this app tracks your 4-H’ers and their individual livestock project animals, keeps tap on project participation, record animal weights, feed and gains and creates spreadsheets and graphs for use in your local and state 4-H records.

• Veterinarian's Guide to Residue Avoidance Management (VetGRAM) – This app has an up-to date database of food animal medicines. It includes approved drug uses, government restrictions, required withdrawal times and tolerances for any drug approved by the FDA for use in food-producing animal species. The mobile version of this information was developed by the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine, Gainesville, Florida. It is based on information in VetGRAM, which is one of the information resources provided by the Food Animal Residue Avoidance & Depletion Program (FARAD Program).

• Farm & Ranch Record Keeping – The University of Nebraska – Lincoln developed this app so farmers and ranchers could easily track their operation’s receipts and expenditures. This app does have an annual fee, but all information in the app can be exported directly to QuickBooks. Crumpled, faded receipts and tax time stress will be a thing of the past.

• NU Pork Anatomy – The University of Nebraska – Lincoln also brings us the NU Pork Anatomy app which helps pork producers, 4-H and FFA meats contest participants and even backyard barbecue enthusiasts information about pork carcasses. The visual and text information regarding the muscles and the bones that make up each pork cut. Users can explore pork cuts by looking at cross-sections, before touching any pictured muscle or bone to learn about the physical and chemical properties of each.